Blocking Spinning Wheel in kWh Meter

The police will come and arrest you, and put you in jail!

The police have nothing to do with what I experiment with in my laboratory.

As I said, the only reason is to know if I feed or take power to or from the grid.

Only when I have solar production enough, I want to charge my Teslas.

Thank you

There are ways of stopping a meter but if you think I’m writing a step by step guide in open forum, you can think again.

I know many ways of stopping the meter, but the only thing I wanted to know is when I attach something to an experimental meter to let the wheel just operate a microswith

on both sides where the wheel is visible if when the wheel stops nothing happens to the

drive coils. The meter I use has 2 CT's and the counter (hands) has been removed.

You guys don't answer the question.

I will try it and let you know.

Thanks

You will need a very sensitive microswitch. Wonder if the wheel has the force to make the switch click.

Perhaps some little alu duct tape and proximity switch?

I don't sense any nefarious purpose here, especially since the register/counting mechanism has been disabled. Basically OP is trying to use the rotating disc as a sort of directional relay to determine whether the net real power is flowing from the grid or his solar inverters.

The meter is basically a single phase shaded pole motor with the rotating disc acting as the rotor. While the direction of rotation will indicate the direction of power flow, the amount of torque available to operate a switch is going to be proportional to the power flowing. At low flow (especially near the zero point) there may be a dead-band where the switch won't operate unless there's a really long operating arm on a very sensitive microswitch, or a magnet operating a reed-switch.

That is what it is mentioned for. I have some other smart meters (wireless and power line communications) so that I cannot implement something else without interferences,

I found an old meter with 2 CT's that will be tested.

When the wheel (rotor) blocks in one or the other direction, I have the CT providing me with a proportional current, useful for controlling the destination proportionally towards

different loads. If a relay can do the same that is fine with me too, only I don't see which one is fit for the job.

Thanks

I re-read this whole post, and I think I get what you are trying to do now. Please confirm:

You want to use the direction of the disk turning to activate one of two microswitches. The disk starts at a central, neutral position (no power flow). If current flows one direction, the disk turns toward one microswitch, hits it, and closes it to indicate that flow. If the current flow is opposite, the disk turns the opposite direct, hits the other microswitch, hits it, and closes to indicate the other direction of flow. In either position, when the disk stops it "blocks" (your term), and sits there as long as current flow holds it there. You are concerned if the CTs on the meter will burn out if the disk is held against a stop like that.

Typical meters are rated for a certain maximum current flow, usually included on the nameplate on the meter. If the current is less than that, the meter should be able to carry it continuously under normal operation. Do you know what your meter's current rating is, and what the maximum magnitude is of the current you are expecting to feed the meter? If the "measured" current is well below the meter rating (I'd say 10% or less), then I don't think I'd expect any damage. However, I wouldn't use the meter for accurate power measurement after that. And depending on where you put the microswitches (how much disk rotation until it hits), there will be a little delay after current starts to flow until the microswitch is operated.

The Ct's are outside the meter and have a 200:5 ratio.

These are not of my concern. They are made to handle the 200 amps if needed.

I am more concerned about the induction coils IN the meter, especially the voltage coil, since that has the thinnest wires.

I will follow the idea of Rixter and try first with a long arm miniature microswitch and let the arm (steel wire) perhaps run through the disk. This is just some experimenting.

Your understanding is correct.

Thanks

Both coils will withstand a totally stalled rotor without damage. What they won't withstand is long term overvoltage/current.

Sounds like a complicated way of determining if the current is in phase with the voltage or 180 degrees out of phase.

Why not use a current loop (or CT if you will) to monitor current and a resistive voltage divider to monitor voltage. Once you have appropriately scaled versions of the voltage and current waveforms, half-wave rectify them then use a Schmidt trigger to turn the sinusoids into square waves (gets rid of amplitude variations) and then multiply the square waves with an analog multiplier, like an AD633. When your average output is 'high', the voltage is in phase with the current and you are consuming power from the grid. When the average output is 'low' you are sourcing power to the grid.

Just an initial thought. There is probably a fatal flaw in this concept, but I don't have the time right now to think it all the way through. Might need some sort of sample and hold, timed to the input voltage waveform.

Well, it is not to only determine the direction of the current.

Once the wheel has spun back and the switch is activated, I will also use the same CT, that measures the current to send the result to compare with the generated result.

So I will create set points for the generated power and where and when to send it to

example: house needs 600 Watts - set point 1

battery charge will be everything only above 600 Watts.

And we try to keep this floating so to get a dynamic division.